Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to Chinese leader Xi Jinping over a devastating earthquake that killed at least 118 people in northwest China last night.
“Please accept my deepest condolences on the deadly aftermath of an earthquake in the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai,” Putin said in his message posted on the Kremlin website.
The epicenter of the seismic event, estimated at a magnitude of 6.2, was located at a depth of 10 kilometers. The authorities in Gansu raised their earthquake emergency response to the second-highest level.
Over 1,500 emergency workers are currently taking part in the rescue effort. A powerful earthquake killed at least 118 people in a cold and mountainous region in northwestern China, provincial officials said on Tuesday, in the nation’s deadliest quake in 10 years.
The magnitude 6.2 quake struck in Gansu’s Jishishan county, about 5km (3 miles) from the provincial boundary with Qinghai. The epicentre was about 1,300km (800 miles) southwest of Beijing, the Chinese capital.
There were nine aftershocks by 10am local time, about 10 hours after the initial quake, the strongest one registering a magnitude of 4.1, a Gansu official said.
